FREEDOM'S PATH

A guide for taking freedom from an abstract concept to a concrete experience.

Philosophers have debated the meaning of freedom throughout the ages. Is it a personal or political right that an outside authority may grant or deny? The absence of a limitation or burden? The license to enjoy a condition or take certain actions? Free will? Nuernberger (The Warrior Sage: Life As Spirit, 2007, etc.) explores and ultimately rejects all these approaches in favor of the meaning he has personally experienced. He believes that freedom is a spiritual reality that exists within each of us. It does not come automatically, however, but requires dedicated mental and physical discipline and practice. Even with such practice, humans can only become open to, but not fully experience, the universal consciousness that transcends the material world. The pathways that Nuernberger examines are the Yoga Sutras, an ancient system that is more complex and profound than the physical postures that often pass for yoga in the West. The guide distills the system’s parts and subparts into concepts that translate into precepts for living. One group enhances outer and inner harmony and emphasizes truthfulness, contentment, purity of body and thought, and surrendering to the higher self. Another deals with posture and energy, including breathing techniques and awareness. The final group specifically strives for enlightenment through sensory control, concentration, meditation and opening to pure consciousness. Nuernberger’s concepts are esoteric (this work hardly lends itself to a quick skim), but his language is not. He is a deft, clear communicator who presents arguments and explanations as compact steppingstones that carry the reader along. He explores the limbs of the Yoga Sutras with a familiarity and warmth of spirit that imbues them with vitality and appeal. The approach rescues them from the dryness that all too frequently accompanies Eastern discourse—and makes palpable the author’s own joy and peace.

A highly readable philosophical treatise blended with equally readable spiritual teachings.